WASHINGTON — Gov. John Hickenlooper has gone out of his way to talk down a whisper campaign that he would be a good 2016 presidential candidate, saying he’s not the type and he’s not a strong enough politician to pull it off.

But Veep?

That doesn’t sound so fun either, he said Monday.

“I like to get my hands in. I like to run stuff, right?” he said at the winter National Governors Association meeting in Washington. “I like to build teams and to operate things. The vice president doesn’t have a large portfolio. Now, politically, the vice president has a huge portfolio, but I don’t think there are too many people who would say that’s my strong suit. … I don’t think I’m that good.”

Hickenlooper said he believes President Barack Obama will win Colorado this fall. He will support the president, but Hickenlooper stressed that he’s trying to keep his government and his image “a-partisan,” as he calls it.

“What we’re trying to do with the state government is we’re trying to reinvent government,” Hickenlooper said. “We’re trying to bring a tone to the table that is sort of a-partisan.”

For Colorado, the most important piece of legislation Congress needs to pass is the wind-energy-production tax credit — something the whole delegation is on board for except Rep. Doug Lamborn.

Will Hick run for president in 2016?

“I don’t think so,” he said. “I think it would be the end of life as we know it.” Allison Sherry, The Denver Post

In ways both large and small, the Democrats elected by Coloradans in November are pushing back against the Trump administration, including its policies on sexual misconduct, reproductive rights, climate change, voting rights and immigration.

Kamala Harris, a first-term senator and former California attorney general known for her rigorous questioning of President Donald Trump's nominees, entered the Democratic presidential race on Monday. Vowing to "bring our voices together," Harris would be the first woman to hold the presidency and the second African-American if she succeeds.

Thirty days into the partial government shutdown, Democrats and Republicans appeared no closer to ending the impasse Sunday than when it began, with President Donald Trump lashing out at his opponents after they dismissed a plan he'd billed as a compromise.